Dress for Success: The Importance of PPE

Not every workplace is the same. For many employees, functionality supersedes style when it comes to the garments they wear on the job. Clothing that is durable and comfortable is a must for employees whose work is vigorous or dirty. In some industries, the outerwear we use doesn’t just make our jobs easier; it saves lives.

In manufacturing, mining and healthcare, day-to-day processes stay fairly regular, so the personal protective equipment (PPE) used by employees rarely changes. Things are different in the emergency response field. Our job is predicated on the ability to go anywhere spills occur. This can include warehouses, confined spaces, waterways, roads, and office buildings.

HazMat technicians can encounter a wide range of hazards while responding to emergency calls. Extreme heat and cold, ice, rain, toxic fumes, infectious materials, and corrosive liquids are all dangers that we can grapple with on any given day. In order to stay prepared, Protect Environmental Services keeps a ready supply of assorted PPE, ranging from latex gloves to Class A suits.

Knowing when and where to use PPE is just as important as having it in hand. Using PPE incorrectly can at best make it ineffective, and at worst make it more dangerous than not having it. Sadly, it’s easy to find examples online of employee deaths and injuries caused by a lack of adequate PPE.

Safety is one of Protect’s top priorities. We offer cost-effective cleanup solutions that not only ensure the safety of our clients’ employees and the environment, but that of our own employees as well. We believe that everyone should be able to go home at the end of the day, so our HAZWOPER certified responders conduct regular drills on how to properly don and doff the equipment that protects them. Since beginning operations in 1996, we’ve had zero lost workdays due to employee injuries; a record we’re proud of and work diligently to maintain.

If your business experiences a chemical spill, calling on Protect Environmental to handle the cleanup is your best move. You can rest assured that Protect will remove contaminants and dispose of the waste in a responsible manner that keeps your business in compliance and keeps your employees out of harm’s way.

Protect Environmental is the Emergency Response Contractor for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) Regions 5,7,9 covering 61 counties and the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDot) Austin, Brownwood, Dallas, Fort Worth and Wichita Falls Districts, covering 69 North Central Texas counties. Included are the cities of Arlington, Burleson, Dallas County, Denton, Fort Worth, Saginaw and Weatherford as well as most other agencies in the North Central Texas Region.